Managing Rights Management

RIAA Argues Riping CDs Illegal - Institutionalized Stupidity

As readers know, I'm favorably disposed to technical means such as DRM, watermarking, fingerprinting, conditional access, and encryption for protecting digital content provided that the technology is reasonably user friendly and that those who use it to protect content provide full disclosure to consumers. As reported by Marc Fisher in... Read more →

Fox, Apple, and FairPlay - Jon Healy's View

Check out Jon Healy's coverage (LA Times blogs) of the Fox / Apple iTunes deal regarding downloading Fox movies. Fox has been in the lead on Blu-ray BD+ and their implicit endorsement of Apple's FairPlay DRM should come as no surprise. Healy says: Today, the Financial Times reported that 20th... Read more →

What's Going On In The Living Room? DRM.

Investor's Business Daily has an overview article on the digital living room. The article rightly views the Macrovision / Gemstar TV deal as a natural outcome of convergence between copy protection technologies and Internet on-demand TV distribution. It concludes with a discussion of Marlin-based DRM interoperability and quotes Scott Smyers,... Read more →

David Pogue: The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality

NYTimes columnist David Pogue asked his college audience about various use scenarios for music and video. Few found any moral or ethical problem with violating copyright. Pogue concluded this piece with: I don't pretend to know what the solution to the file-sharing issue is. (Although I'm increasingly convinced that copy... Read more →

Microsoft Advertising and Apple Code Injection Patent Applications

The blogosphere has been busy discussing recent patent applications from Microsoft and Apple. In many cases, these applications have been discussed as if they had already been issued by the USPTO, which they have not. The Microsoft application addresses techniques for ensuring that advertising in video objects is seen before... Read more →

Does Microsft Want Market Confusion Re Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD?

Investors' Business Daily (via CNN) says that no winner has emerged from the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war. Although Blu-ray has sold more discs, ongoing studio realignments have continued to muddy the waters. And confusion may serve the interests of some competitors. Citing movie director Michael Bay, the IBD article... Read more →

US Govt and Hitachi Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays, the USPTO issues new patents, and Chrismas was no exception. Both of today's spotlight patents address various aspects of watermarking. Assigned to the US Government, the first describes techniques for frequency domain watermarking using a phase based filter signature. Assigned to Hitachi, the second patent addresses ways of... Read more →

Is ecomputerblog.com legal?

On Friday I reported that BD+ has attracted additional licensees. I use a number of Google and Yahoo filters to track various DRM related topics that are in the news or that have been discussed in the blogosphere. My filter found a link to ecomputerblog.com with my headline as their... Read more →

Defective by Design Targets eBooks

The Defective by Design anti-DRM campaign has targeted eBook readers and books from Amazon and Sony: When you purchase a DRM ebook, it is locked to a single device. When the device breaks or becomes outdated, you can no longer read your ebook. You buy a lock, but you don't... Read more →

Are Blu-ray and BD+ Gaining Momentum Post Macrovision Acqusition of SPDC Technology?

The BD+ licensing authority web site lists three new Asian companies supporting BD+ as adopters. The three were added since last Sunday. This appears to be the single largest addition to the adopter list in several months. The number of movie studios remains one: Fox. The three new additions are... Read more →